The World Changes in an Instant
by WolfWinks
Summary: Lily comes home from Hogwarts with a spring in her step and a smile on her face. She never expected to find her house in disarray and her family gone. Zombie!AU


**Warnings** : Gore **  
Notes:** Zombie!AU

* * *

The house was empty, the walls stained with smoke and the rooms smelled like they hadn't been attended to in years. Lily stood in the doorway with her eyes wide and a hand covering her mouth and nose. She took two slow steps inside.

"Mum?"

The house was silent. Lily walked towards the kitchen half in a daze. She stepped over fallen furniture without noticing it and pushed open the door without seeing the spots of crimson staining it.

"Dad? Petunia?"

She stepped into the room and saw the remains of what once might have been a leg lying in the middle of the floor. Lily's body froze, and she couldn't pull her eyes away from the sight. On what once might have been the ankle, was a small design which looked like a flower.

"Petunia?" she whispered in a broken voice. She knew that her sister had bought a tattoo last summer without their parent's permission. A small petunia design.

"Oh, Merlin." Lily stumbled away from the sight, and her feet hit something. She fell to the ground with a painful thud. Lily could feel tears threatening, but when she turned her eyes away from her sister's leg, she saw what she tripped over and couldn't hold back her a scream.

A large, male chest with only the left arm still attached.

Lily scrambled away from the chest—her father's chest—still screaming. She didn't notice when the door she just entered through opened, and she didn't notice when her name was called. She did notice when a hand landed on her shoulder.

Pulling away from the hand, no longer screaming, she looked up at James Potter. Lily had invited him over for dinner that night, wanting to introduce her family to her boyfriend.

"Lily," James said. He didn't need to say anything else as he gazed around the room in sympathy and horror. Pulling Lily to her feet, James wrapped an arm around her shaking frame.

Lily collapsed into his chest and sobbed. "They're dead," she said over and over. "They're all dead."

"Lils?"

The sound of her mother's nickname for her had Lily lifting her head from James' chest with a snap. Standing across the room from her was her mother, but there was something wrong. Her hair was matted on one side and missing on the other. Her arms hung limp, and she was leaning heavily against the wall. When Lily looked down she realised that her mother was missing her left foot, the flesh at the ankle torn to shreds.

Lily swallowed, but she stepped forward. Her mother was alive, something she thought she would never see again.

James didn't let her take more than that one step.

"I'm so glad you're okay, Mum. What happened?" Lily tried to move forward again, but James only tugged her back. She shot a glare at James, but he was too focused on Lily's mother to see it.

"Lils, what a'e you. . . here?"

The words were stilted, and Lily frowned in confusion for a brief moment. Her mother's eyes were darting around the room like she was looking for something, and her hands were clenched like she was holding something back.

"It's summer, Mum," Lily stuttered. "I'm home for summer."

Lily's mum focused her eyes on her daughter and they widened. "Leave," she said. "Run, before it's too late."

"Mum?"

Lily's mother swayed dangerously. She brought a hand to her head barely moments before falling to the ground. The dull thud echoed around the room for a brief moment before Lily reacted.

James held Lily as she struggled to reach her mum. "No!" Lily yelled out. "No! Let me go!"

"Lily, look."

It took a few moments, but Lily eventually focused on where her mother had fallen, and she saw her mother's limbs twisted in unnatural angles, and a large hole in the back of her head.

"Oh my—"

"Run!" Lily's mother, who wasn't her mother any longer, growled out before it pulled itself up and stared at the young couple in front of her. Then, it pounced.

James—using every reflex he had—flung a desperate spell at the creature. It missed, but it did hit Petunia's severed leg, distracting the creature just long enough to escape. James dragged Lily out of the house and down the road at a frantic pace. "We have to go," he said, tugging Lily close. "We have to leave now."

Lily resisted, glancing back to the house. "Mum," she said, though her voice was almost too soft to hear.

"I'm sorry, Lily, she's gone. They're all gone."

"But she was still—"

"That wasn't your mother in there!" he snapped, instantly regretting it when Lily's face crumbled. "I'm sorry, but that _thing_ may have her memories and even some of her emotions, but it was _not_ your mother." James glanced back at the house and pulled Lily close. "I'm sorry, Lily. I'm so sorry," he said before apparating away.

* * *

Hogsmead was a panicked mass of people running. James dodged pointed elbows and stray spells as he steered Lily towards Honeydukes. "Hogwarts will be safe," he muttered over and over again.

Lily was practically limp in his arms. Her legs moved forward, but she didn't lift her wand once, and she didn't speak. She was staring at her surroundings with blank eyes, and James was worried she might stop breathing as well. He was exhausted, but he kept moving. He couldn't allow himself to stop.

When they finally arrived at Honeydukes, they found a group of people with their wands raised and pointed at him and Lily. James raised his wand hand—the one not holding Lily upright—in the air so they could see he meant no harm.

"Check them," one of the people barked from the back.

A man only a few years older than James stepped forward and waved his wand. " _Deprehendere_ ," he said before James could react. A warm orange glow appeared over Lily's body and when the man cast it again at James the same orange glow appeared.

"They're clean," the man said.

Others stepped out of the shop and tugged James and Lily through. Lily was ripped from James' hands, and she cried out in surprise. James fought the hands off, trying to reach Lily but they were too strong.

"Relax, we are just making sure she isn't injured." A man stepped forward. He was large and tall, with a face covered in freckles and a scar imprinted on one cheek. His wand was still in his hand, but it was now against his side, and his voice had a slight accent, but James couldn't figure out what it was.

"She's not injured," James said, once again reaching for Lily, who was now staring at James with wide, frightened eyes. "She's just in shock. Her parents were. . ." James couldn't finish, but it seemed like he didn't need to.

The man in front of him nodded, and he turned to his companions. "Let her go," he said.

The moment Lily was released, she ran into James and wrapped her arms around his waist. Her eyes didn't lose their fear, but they held a determined glint in them which reassured James.

He wrapped his arm around Lily's shoulders, despite the fact that she seemed to be standing on her own now. There were so many questions running through his mind, ones he wasn't sure he wanted the answer to just yet, so he asked the easiest ones. "What was that spell? What did it do?"

"It's a detection charm. Those _people_ out there are infected with a muggle virus. I'm not sure what it's called or where it came from, but the virus is contagious. Muggles called the infected ones Zombies. If you're bitten by one, you become one."

"Like a werewolf," one person from the crowd called out, "but worse."

James frowned and tried to find the person's voice. "Not all werewolves are bad, though. Maybe these Zombi—"

"No," the first man said. A hush fell over the crowd, and James turned to face the man. He wasn't looking at James or Lily or anyone else. Rather, he was staring outside at the mass of zombies that were surrounding a few older wizards. "Zombies are killers, plain and simple. They will eat you if given the chance." The man turned away from the window and locked his eyes onto James'. "Don't give them a chance."

James stayed silent for a moment, staring at the floor. Lily was by his side breathing heavily, but she was looking at James.

"Anyway," the man said after the silence started to become stifling. "The spell was to detect the virus, and you're both clean."

"We have to get to Hogwarts," Lily said, turning to the man. "We'll be safe there."

The man snorted and glanced at them. The others behind him shuffled their feet and some stare longingly at the castle they can barely see over the hill. "Good luck getting through the swarm," he said.

James glanced at Lily with a smile which she matched. "We don't need to. Follow us."

* * *

The walk through the secret passage was almost completely silent. No one wanted to talk, and the loud sounds of their feet echoing around the room were enough to drown out the screams above. The only words spoken were the occasional biting comments when one person wasn't careful enough when they walked.

"Watch where you're going," a person from behind James snapped. The voice was rough and old. "You just trod on my foot."

James rolled his eyes, but he couldn't prevent a small smile at the other person's—a young woman's—response.

"Well, if your foot wasn't in the way. . ."

Eventually, the tunnel started to lighten, and James picked up the pace in anticipation.

"We're almost there," he said to Lily, though his words echoed back to everyone else.

The others started to murmur and trade happy whispers, and by the time James was pushing the door open, most of the group were laughing and talking like it was just another day. The passage opened and James came face to face with Albus Dumbledore's wand.

"James, my boy," Dumbledore whispered. "I had hoped it wasn't someone I knew."

James stood in front of Lily, and he kept his hands free and clear. "We're no danger," James said. "We've been checked for the virus and we're all clean."

Dumbledore studied him for a moment and then turned his eyes to Lily. When he saw her ragged appearance and shattered expression, his own softened. "If you're sure you're not infected, then come in." Dumbledore lowered his wand and stepped aside, letting the small group in.

"Albus," the grumpy man from before said. James turned and was surprised to see a copy of the headmaster standing in the group. _How did I not notice him?_

"Aberforth, I thought you had died."

James left the brothers—because how could they be anything else—to reunite, and shuffled Lily towards the Gryffindor tower.

"We'll be safe here, James said.

They passed by a small window and stopped to see smoke rising from Hogsmeade. There were a few frantic black dots, a lot like ants, running away from the town and flashes of colour flying into the sky, but the couple's attention was brought towards the large group of slow moving creatures stalking anyone not quick or smart enough to run.

"We're safe," Lily whispered finally, "but for how long?"

* * *

(w.c 1,926)

WolfWinks-xx-


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